The Swing City Academy

Our youngest cohort. The fundamentals year — hitting mechanics, throwing motion, footwork, eye contact at the plate. Math and reading two periods each day under Ms. Trent, our credentialed teacher, who taught seven years in Murrieta before joining us.

They learn to read a box score before they learn how to keep one. They learn the names of every coach, every machine, every lane in The Cage. By Thanksgiving they know where the bullpen mound is and how to call a strike.

Most arrive shy and a little uncertain. By spring quarter they are running the warm-up. That is the quiet work of this group — and it is the work that determines everything that follows.

The middle cohort — and the heart of our program. The skill year. HitTrax data introduced. Position specialization begins in earnest. Algebra prep, daily writing, and science labs that include real glassware and Bunsen burners, not worksheets.

By spring quarter their box scores tell us as much about their study habits as their swings do. The ones who put in extra reps after Thursday practice are the same ones who finish their algebra packets ahead of schedule.

This is the cohort where the program shows its hand. The student-athlete identity becomes real. They start signing their own names on their lockers, on their bats, on the box scores they bring home to their parents.

The showcase year. Rapsodo data, video review, position-specific training under Coach Tony. High-school-prep academics with HS-level math and lab science under our credentialed staff.

These are the seniors of our middle-school program — the ones who set the tone for everyone walking through the front door. They lock up the cage at night. They mentor the Group I kids without being asked.

They leave us prepared for high-school freshman ball and high-school freshman algebra in equal measure. Half of them already have varsity coaches calling. The other half will, by the time the leaves turn.